The Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch reports that Senators GM Bryan Murray won't trade Jason Spezza unless he gets the amount of compensation he's seeking from the Blues, Blackhawks, Ducks or whoever else is bidding on Spezza's services, and all I'm going to say about Garrioch's update is this:

I'm sure that having Murray as a GM helps the master of trade rumors cut out the middleman (Garrioch's been at this far longer than Eklund, and Garrioch is far, far better), but man, it's got to suck playing for a general manager who will explicitly discuss his displeasure with your play or his attempts to trade you with every reporter that will listen to him. It sure didn't help the Wings in the mid-90's, and in this day and age...It's got to be rough.

"I told this to the agent and the player, 'It may happen, there may be conversations that bring us close to it, but it certainly doesn't have to be the cutoff point by any stretch,'" said Murray. "It could go all summer and it could go into the year. If I don't get the right deal, he has a year left on his contract and that could be the case, yes."

Of course, this can all change."

Now, Murray could be trying to drive up the market a little bit because the offers have been less than desireable. Spezza might want out but that doesn't mean they will give him away, either.

Murray wasn't willing to put any odds on whether he'll get a deal done in the next few hours leading up to the draft.

"I'm not a betting many so I won't give any odds," said Murray. "I'm not sure at this point. I'm certainly having some discussions, not as much as I thought might happen today. Again, there are a few people talking to me that have expressed interest. We'll play it out and see if anything comes of it."

Garrioch continues....